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My son-in-law brought me some fresh caught ocean fish over the past month and they paired better with fresh bought white wines than with elderly reds.
I did pull a few of the latter from their hiding place in the cabinet.
One was a 1985 Milano Cabernet Sauvignon from Sonoma County grapes, even though the Winery is the furthest one south in Mendocino County.
This small winery has been in production since the '70's and has a friendly tasting room on a two lane section of US 101 south of Hopland; the turn-in northbound is a white knuckle one with the southbound one much safer.
The wine was in good shape and tasty, but surprisingly similar to the next victim, a 1985 Sirah-Syrah from Preston Vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg in Sonoma County.
It was a blend of 56% Petite Syrah and 46% Sirah. The winery still makes this Rhone variety blend but varies the mix.
I guess the similarity we found between these two very different wines comes from the waning of the influence their source fruit.
The corks I am encountering have benefited from storing the bottles on their sides for 30+ years, keeping them from drying out. They are fragile, however, and I am trying different extraction methods to keep particles from the wine; so far a really fine strainer has been necessary.
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